Man who cried prejudice is arrested

Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2007 | 7:01 a.m.

A black man who claimed discrimination in a lawsuit against one of the Las Vegas Valley's toniest golf clubs has surrendered to federal authorities in Los Angeles after being indicted in an alleged $5 million investment scam.

On Tuesday the U.S. attorney's office called Steven M. Ferguson "an economic predator with no legitimate employment," charging him with 24 counts of fraud and money laundering after he allegedly fleeced investors of millions in investment schemes across the country over the last decade. If convicted, Ferguson could be sentenced to as much as 225 years in federal prison.

Ferguson flashed on the Las Vegas scene in early 2005, when he drew the backing of local civil rights groups after alleging that the Southern Highlands Golf Club revoked his membership because he is black.

Club representatives - whose members include MGM Mirage Chairman Terry Lanni, Sun Editor Brian Greenspun and former baseball star Reggie Jackson - insisted they tossed Ferguson after obtaining information about his past scams.

Federal courts here and in Los Angeles have been busy with both cases in recent weeks, and it remains unclear whether the discrimination lawsuit will continue if Ferguson is held in prison on the investment scam charges.

"Generally speaking, a lawsuit can go forward if a defendant is detained," said John R. Hawley, one of Ferguson's attorneys in the Southern Highlands lawsuit.

Mark Ferrario, attorney for Southern Highlands Golf Club LLC, said the club from the start viewed Ferguson's suit as frivolous. Tuesday's news "may impact our arguments," he added.

The indictment lays out 10 years of alleged behavior by Ferguson, including flying Swiss investors to Hawaii for fancy meals and using Lear jets, designer suits, golf games and limousines to draw dollars from backers for various companies, including waste management and sports management firms.

The 46-page document charges that Ferguson promised astronomic returns and would keep anxious investors at bay by paying them with the latest victims' cash. Alternately, it alleges, he would rely on excuses, claiming at various times to be behind in his payments because of international restrictions on wiring the funds, a death in the family or he was trapped in a snowstorm.

Another of his alleged schemes involved meeting women on dating Web sites, whom he would then sweet-talk into offering credit card and other personal information, leading to more cash in his many bank accounts or purchases of luxury goods.

He supposedly told would-be backers that he was worth $44 million.

Along the way, in January 2002, Ferguson allegedly used more than $800,000 in Swiss investment money to purchase a home at Southern Highlands.

Barely two months after he leveled his discrimination claims, in March 2005, the federal government seized the home.